Long after the close of World War II, the Western Europeans have recovered economically, overturned alien communist regimes, and absorbed Central and Eastern European states into the European project. Collectively they vastly outstrip the remains of the Soviet Union, so why won't they defend themselves?

Washington needs to restore a working relationship with Moscow on multiple issues. That doesn’t mean trusting Vladimir Putin. It does mean making policy in accord with the way the world is, not the way we wish it was.

Trump’s speech rested on a defense of basic truths that only liberalism could find controversially “nationalist.” Seen through liberalism’s warped lens, a restatement of common sense, universal to all, is treated as “divisive” while explicitly dividing people by special-interest categories is “unifying.” In that perverse spirit, liberals looked for sins of omission and found one in Trump’s not visiting a monument to Jewish victims of the Nazis. Ivanka, a convert to Judaism, visited it, but that wasn’t good enough.

There is no evidence that the Putin government intends to start an aggressive war against Europe, and no alliance member, including the Baltic States and Poland, has boosted military outlays as if it believed conflict was imminent. Rather, the Europeans have concentrated on demanding that America do more.

No one seriously expects the Dutch, Italians, or Spanish to provide permanent garrisons for Poland. The Germans, who publicly oppose the idea, won’t be coming. Only Britain and France are realistic candidates, and both only reluctantly halted further cuts in their military budget. Which leaves only you-know-who.